


You.

by YuriNoShoujo



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Depression, Gen, Korra Alone Korra, Post Series Utena, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-07-15 10:46:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16061513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YuriNoShoujo/pseuds/YuriNoShoujo
Summary: Was she real? Korra didn’t know.Was she human? Korra didn’t care.But like a ghost she haunted her.And Korra had had enough demons and spirits already.





	1. The First Glimpse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is not a happy one but it demanded to be written.

Korra meandered in the shifting sands, the hallucinogens of the cactus juice offering no comforting visions or euphoric high like it did for Sokka. Instead, she heard voices. She cursed herself for running out of water, and cursed her survival instincts that kept her walking to the next town. She kept a note of who she heard:

A woman speaking fiercely in a tongue she did not know but a tone that reminded her of Lin. 

A girl—or was it a boy?—muttering about Missions and Grails, fantasy objects. 

A man, in the same tongue as the woman, whimpering yet resolute. 

Finally, there was the girl that sounded the same age as her deliriously muttering a sordid tale.

Oftentimes she’d hear a far-off melody, a sweet piano piece before the voices would speak. It was eerie but better than The One With The Chain.

Her attacker. Her stalker.

Her reflection. 

 

 Today she heard a different tune. She waited for an imagined voice—or was it—to fill the silence swallowed by the sand. Instead she saw a girl.

Well, it could have been a girl. Her lurid pink hair and overlarge eyes indicated she could have been a spirit. She was curled in a loose foetal position, sighing and struggling in pain. A closer look at her showed why. 

Twin wounds on her front and back globbed blood onto the desert from. Stab wounds, likely from the same weapon going clean through. They reminded her of the time one of the White Lotus Guards went fishing with her and got a spear through his arm. But she couldn’t see the weapon that hurt the girl in front of her at all. There was nothing but sand. 

What was going on? Were there bandits out? Had the girl been mugged? Korra took out her last trickle of water to heal the girl. She looked no older than Jinora. Too young to die. 

“N-no. Y-you don’t n-need to do that.” She spoke. Her voice was weak and stuttering. “I-I’m fine.”

And Korra though she was lying when she said those words. She wanted to argue, but she knew it was too late. If only she had been a proper Avatar. Then this mess wouldn’t have happened and this girl would have a future beyond the few minutes it takes her to pass on! 

The girl looked up at her. Her blue eyes looked like no one she had ever seen before’s, no one human at least. The likelihood of her being a spirit continued to rise.

“S-Stay with me?” There was only one answer to that. 

Korra sat down, offering her lap to the dying spirit-girl. Perhaps she had been possessed, then attacked. The entry wound was in her back, her attacker fought dirty. 

“What’s your name?”

”Utena”, she said, barely audible. A Fire Nation name. Names like hers were rare around here. Skin as pale as hers was also rare, the suns kiss showed on everyone, even slightly. 

“It’s Utena”, she repeated, stronger now. “Avatar Korra.”

How did she even know who she was? Korra had hidden who she was for weeks, maybe months. No one recognised her without the hair or the blue clothing. Some had gotten close but none hit the mark before she shut them down.

She tried to hide her shock from the dyin—no Utena’s—eyes. She let out a few shallow breaths before trying to speak again.

”Korra, you are as much of a failure as I am. I cannot be a prince. But I am still myself”

Considering the only prince here was Prince Wu, that really wasn’t something to look up to. She didn’t make any sense. She gasped for air a few times. 

“Korra?” 

“Yes?” By the time she responded Utena was dead. Korra slid her fingers over the girl’s eyes, closing them. She earthbent a grave and marker as the sun set behind her, placing the gangly body in it. The work made her weary and by the time she had done it was nightfall.

She set up camp and fell asleep.

In the morning, the grave was gone and the girl’s words circled in Korra’s mind. 

Failure.

Failure.

Failure. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can anyone hazard a guess to who the voices are?


	2. A Second Sighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dead are alive. Her corpse was still breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long hiatus. Have discovered that killing Utena is becoming a yearly tradition now and had to take a break so I don’t do it again...

She stayed in a town for a few days. Dealing with people made her weary but she couldn’t be alone any more. She made sure to buy a second water skin. Cactus juice was not a mistake to make twice. 

The town was connected to a small oasis, and was surrounded by thorny scrub and cacti, supposedly planted both as food for the animals and defence against invaders. It had become unnecessary, a weed, and there was a note asking for ways to cull it. An inkling of her old self wanted to rush in and help but how well did that go last time? Terrible. It would be like her to screw up totally. She _was_ a failure. But this wasn’t fighting bandits, this was just killing some plants. Easy, right? She rose up, shuffling to the town hall to sign up. 

When she got there, the sign-up sheet was full. They didn’t need her. 

* * *

She wanted to punch something.  She wanted to bend. For once, she wanted to _do_ things and she couldn’t. It wasn’t fair. She knew she sounded like a petulant, but frankly, she had never been treated any different. She either had no responsibility at all or the weight of the world on her shoulders. She could do nothing right and she couldn’t do anything wrong either. 

She tossed herself into the shared room she had paid for for the nigh. Apparently people from all around the kingdom wanted to destroy the infestation. The town was paying well enough for it. To Korra, it was another reminder of redundant she was. 

Behind her, she heard a strange noise. The cling-clang and rustle of chains. Not again. She turned, enough to catch a glimpse of her outside her window. Just sitting there, watching. Waiting to strike. Just staying in a silent standoff. If they fought Korra knew she would win. 

It was near midnight when her roommate came in. They wore a hooded robe, obscuring everything bar a skinny arm, which trembled in the desert cold. Must’ve been a traveller from somewhere more temperate. Korra finally turned away from the window, pain seeping into her muscles after being tensed for so long. 

“That doesn’t look like meditation.” 

No way. It was _her_. Utena. The dead girl. The girl that died in her arms. The girl that she buried. She bled out from a stab wound. 

This isn’t happening. No this isn’t happening. It’s just a dream. She gonna close her eyes and her roommate will magically change into someone real. Real and not dead. 

“Are you hungry? The baker gave me extra bread. He said I looked more bony than a skeleton!” 

Korra opened her eyes. Utena was still there. She was dressed in a white tank top with blue shorts. An ornate hairclip was pinned in her pink hair, which was long and slightly wavy when not matted with blood. 

“Why are you talking to me? Go away! You’re dead!” 

She looked bewildered, and even a little sheepish. “I am? What killed me?”

“You’re seriously asking that?” 

“Yes.”

Korra groaned. How would she know? Utena started fidgeting. Communication was clearly a skill they both lacked. And frankly, there was too many off things with this girl to truly unpack. An uneasiness of things unsaid, conversations that should have been had hung over them both. 

At 4 am Utena left. The air felt calm and still. 

Well, at least until Korra turned and saw glowing blue eyes fixed on her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still dark, will hopefully get better.


End file.
